Nearly $8K In Illegal Tennis Bets Accepted By DraftKings In MA
Earlier this year, DraftKings accepted nearly $8,000 in illegal tennis bets in Massachusetts. More specifically, the platform took in 864 illegal bets totaling $7,867.
The bets were placed over the course of 12 days on events during the Universal Tennis Ranking (UTR) tour.
Bets can be placed on UTR events in other states, but not in Massachusetts.
The exact details of the illegal wagers were announced by DraftKings MA earlier this week during an adjudicatory meeting with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC).
Cause of the error
The MGC did not approve adding UTR events to the state’s sports wagering catalog, which means betting on UTR events is not legal in the Commonwealth.
According to Zachary Mercer of the MGC Investigation and Enforcement Bureau, DraftKings cited “miscommunication between the trading team and the trading compliance team” as the cause of the errors.
In addition, Mercer noted an instance where the trading team took regulations from a different state, having not realized Massachusetts had different regulations in place.
After discovering the errors, DraftKings self-reported the mistake to the MGC. Refunds were granted for losing wagers while pending wagers were cancelled.
This is not the first time that illegal bets have been placed and accepted in Massachusetts.
In previous months, other online sportsbook operators have met with the MGC to explain issues that resulted in just one or two illegal bets being placed. DraftKings allowed 864 illegal bets to be placed during a two-week time frame, making the scope of this infraction considerably larger.
Illegal bets have also been placed at Massachusetts casinos. Just a couple days after the launch of retail sports betting in Massachusetts, all three Massachusetts casinos accepted wagers on men’s and women’s college basketball games involving schools based in Massachusetts.
Such wagers are not permitted, as betting on in-state collegiate teams is not allowed in Massachusetts — unless the teams are participating in a tournament involving four or more teams. The bets placed were on regular season games.
In the end, the three casinos were fined a total of $50,000 for allowing the illegal bets to be placed.
